Reality check for state Liberals but brand ‘not toxic’

[Pelican Press 0]

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Reality check for state Liberals but brand ‘not toxic’

A state Liberal leader has brushed off his party’s federal election thumping and dismissed concerns its brand has become “toxic”.

Victoria’s opposition leader Brad Battin and his state party were riding high in the polls before being delivered a brutal reality check on Saturday.

Voters took a hatchet to the party in Melbourne, with his federal colleagues in Deakin and Menzies to the city’s east projected to lose their seats.

The Liberals also failed to reclaim Aston after losing the federal seat to Labor in a 2023 by-election, and a quest to claim others in Melbourne’s outer suburbs looks set to fall short.

Peter Dutton pitched a national policy to build nuclear reactors at ageing coal-fired power stations, including to the state’s east in Gippsland.

Mr Battin sought to distance himself from the plan during the campaign and claims he was not stunned by voters’ repudiation of the Liberals.

“I don’t believe the Liberal brand is toxic at all,” he told reporters at Morwell in Victoria’s east.

“By the time we get to the next (state) election … I am confident that we can go with a policy platform that people can have faith in.”

Victorian voters head to the state polls in November 2026.

The state’s Labor premier Jacinta Allan, seen as a drag on the federal party’s support, was only invited to appear once with Anthony Albanese on the campaign trail.

But she crowed about the result being vindication of Labor’s management of the state, where it has spent all but four years in power since 1999.

Another issue to cross federal and state lines over the course of the campaign was Melbourne’s controversial Suburban Rail Loop, a planned 90km orbital rail line from Cheltenham to Werribee via the airport.

The mega rail project was in the gun when Mr Dutton threatened to pull Labor’s $2.2 billion in committed federal funding if he won government.

Ms Allan suggested the election result provided a renewed mandate to build the $34.5 billion project, particularly in seats where the line’s eastern section is slated to pass through.

“This project has the support of the Victorian community,” she said at a tunnel boring machine launch site in Clarinda on Monday.

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